XBMC – GSoC 2012 Statistics Gathering

This morning there was a post on XBMC talking about one of the Interns from Google’s Summer of Code, he is looking to make the current scrapers even better! But to do that he needs some information, below is a quote of how to help and what data XBMC is looking for:\r\n

To do this, we’ve created a script that you can find in the Program Addons folder of your XBMC install called “Statistics gathering for scraping GSoC 2012.” What the script will gather is the bare essential metadata if scanned into the library, title, year, runtime, tvshow, episode number and season number etc. The file path is also stored as it is what generates this data and of great importance to know, saying that I want to note that we will NOT store any username or password information in any part of these URLs, this script is not meant to track the users and it cannot track you! The data is uploaded to a server which we on the team can view and no data about your system except the metadata and file urls are uploaded, no binary data from the files of any kind!

\r\nI for one will be sending my data to help in whatever way I can, having the scraper be able to read a lot more file names and import them correctly will be awesome.\r\n\r\nUPDATE: If you are using this addon make sure to only submit your data ONCE, otherwise it will muddy the data being gathered.

11 Responses to XBMC – GSoC 2012 Statistics Gathering

Ok, let me see if I have this right. An intern from Google is working on XBMC code, would like to extract info from all of our XBMC data files, including specific file path to said data, upload this info to a server to be stored and used at their leisure, and we are supposed to be put at our ease by a simple statement of “I want to note that we will NOT store any username or password information in any part of these URLs, this script is not meant to track the users and it cannot track you!”.\r\n\r\nThis is a script created by an intern from Google. Google being the company that extracts just about every ounce of information it can from everything we do on, with or around any software that Google produce. Do I have this right? I am being asked to not be concerned about this as it’s all above board and ok…should I be feeling concerned?

You are completely wrong.\r\n\r\nThis is a student (who already is a Team XBMC member) that has choosen a project to improve XBMC scraping. Google only provides the oppertunity for students to do this during the summer and grants them a “fee” for their work. Google is in no part other than that involved. All code review and student guidence is done by senior Team XBMC members.\r\nPerhaps if you had searched about GSoC you wouldn’t be asking this question.\r\n\r\nhttp://code.google.com/soc/

Thank you Martijn, thats what I wanted to hear. I am very happy that I am completely wrong, and yes, you are right to say that had I researched GSoC I would possibly not be asking that question. In my defense in asking that question, I think I have the freedom to ask these kind of questions if the implications aren’t fully understood at the time of asking…thats what forums are for, asking questions.\r\n\r\nKInd Regards\r\n\r\nJeff Dunne

hmm, hang on, I just re-read the thread. I personally will always be suspicious of having Google involved. The less they have to do with it, the better, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to see any more little fish get consumed by the corporate conglomerate of Google.\r\nthat’s my view.

I can’t afford to send Apple my data, let alone buy their trumped up, crappy devices. \r\nGoogle is the biggest threat to freedom of expression – without a doubt. You should see what they are censoring (courtesy of the UK government) \r\nApple and Google have both been enslaved by governments.\r\nThe Internet is not as free as you think.

I don’t think you can really blame google, the issue is the rampant corruption in many world governments, though most of that stems from pressure from the US government via the lobbying power of the entertainment industries.

It looks like ‘Google’s Summer of Code’ isn’t inspiring a ‘Google Summer of Love’ right now. This was my original point at the very top of this post. I’m still happy if XBMC as an organisation are happy…but the majority remains to be seen.

@Joey \r\nWe store no binary data and all is filepaths and urls. So there is _no_ way to tell if you have named an empty file a certain way or if you have a movie. I.e. the data is unusable to them. Also, all usernames and passwords are stripped and we do not keep submitters IP. If your using all internal paths there should be nothing trackable, atleast if all your files and the URLs only is within a LAN. If you are uncertain if your paths could be trackable of a government with the data, i.e. if your urls lead to externally viewable paths without password, then dont submit the data.

\r\n\r\nAlso as an update, if you are using this make sure to only submit your data ONCE, otherwise it will muddy the data being gathered.